Prioritization of hydroelectric power plant earth dam safety procedures: a multi-criteria approach

• Published in: Environmental earth sciences Vol. 80; no. 24
• Main Authors: Ribas, José Roberto, Severo, Juliana C. R., Felix, Letícia C. G., Perpetuo, Kim P. C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Best practice; Best practices; Biogeosciences; Dam engineering; Dam safety; Dams; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth dams; Earth Sciences; Environmental impact; Environmental Science and Engineering; Geochemistry; Geology; Guidelines; Hydroelectric plants; Hydroelectric power; Hydroelectric power plants; Hydrology/Water Resources; Inspection; Monitoring; Multiple criterion; Original Article; Plant management; Priorities; Procedures; Public domain; Safety; Scheduling; Terrestrial Pollution; Training; Vulnerability; Hydroelectric power plant; Dam vulnerability; Monitoring; Safety procedures; MCDA
• ISSN: 1866-6280; 1866-6299
• DOI: 10.1007/s12665-021-10096-9

The number of procedures focused on dam safety is very large, mainly due to the rules established by different regulatory bodies, the guidelines that are part of the recommended best practices for engineering works, and the common sense and conservatism present in dam operation and maintenance because of the large socioeconomic and environmental impacts that any incident with a dam can cause. In practice, the vulnerability of a dam is inversely proportional to the improvement of safety procedures, such as monitoring and sensing, and the staff’s capacity to interpret the information in timely fashion. Therefore, establishing priorities for these procedures is essential for the plant management to define the scheduling and detailing of inspections and monitoring, as well as training needs. The MCDA model described here was specified based on regulations and practical public domain guidelines. The subjective estimation of preferences was done by the staff of a hydroelectric plant located in central Brazil. It employed the Simos method combined with a procedure adopted to convert the scores to the format of paired comparisons. The weights for dam safety procedures were obtained using the fuzzy AHP method. The method allowed obtaining the classification of safety procedures according to their priorities, and thus provided the plant management with elements to better schedule monitoring and staff training.